Global-local visual processing impacts risk taking behaviors, but only at first

Stephen Wee Hun Lim; Alexander Y L Yuen; Eddie M W Tong

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01257

Global-local visual processing impacts risk taking behaviors, but only at first

Front Psychol. 2015 Aug 31:6:1257. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01257. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Stephen Wee Hun Lim¹, Alexander Y L Yuen¹, Eddie M W Tong¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore , Singapore.

Abstract

We investigated the impact of early visual processing on decision-making during unpredictable, risky situations. Participants undertook Navon's (1977) task and attended to either global letters or local letters only, following which they completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). It was observed that global-focused individuals made more balloon pumps during the BART (i.e., took more risk), whereas local-focused individuals took less risk, albeit only initially. The theory of predictive and reactive control systems (PARCS) provides an excellent account of the data. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Keywords: Balloon Analogue Risk Task; decision making; global-local visual processing; risk taking behavior; theory of predictive and reactive control systems.